James Bell Crichton VC

b. 15/07/1879 Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. d. 22/09/1961 Takapuna, New Zealand.

James Bell Crichton (1879-1961) was born on 15th July 1879 at Woodburn Road, Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland. He was known as “Scotty” to his family. His father, William Crichton, was from Ballymore, County Antrim, and was a coal miner. He married Elizabeth “Eliza” Matilda Bell on 25th August 1879 at Carrickfergus. They moved to Scotland in c.1885 and lived in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, before moving to East Shotts, Lanarkshire. James had five siblings – William, Robert, Mary, David and Sarah.

James B Crichton VC

Very little is known about his early life. He enlisted in the Cameron Highlanders at Glasgow on 13th October 1899, declaring previous service with the Royal Scots. He joined at Inverness on 17th October and was posted to 2nd Battalion on 20th February 1900. He served in Gibraltar from 23rd February and was posted to 1st Battalion in South Africa on 10th August 1901. He returned to Britain in October 1902 and transferred to the Army Reserve on termination of his period of engagement. He emigrated to New Zealand just before the outbreak of World War I, and worked as a cable splicer.

James enlisted in the New Zealand Army Service Corps, New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 22nd August 1914. He embarked for service abroad on 11th October and served in Egypt from 4th December. He was promoted to lance corporal and joined Divisional Train No 1 as a corporal on 16th March 1915. He transferred to No 4 Section, 1st Australian Division Ammunition Column on 24th April. On 19th October he embarked on RMS Franconia for Anzac, Gallipoli and joined his unit there on 25th October. He returned to Egypt in January 1916.

On 23rd March he was promoted squadron quartermaster sergeant and warrant officer class two. He joined 1st Field Bakery NZASC on 25th March and left Egypt for France on 9th April, where he was appointed baker on 18th April. However, James wanted to see action. He relinquished his appointment as baker on 1st April 1918 and was detached to the New Zealand Division Wing, XXII Corps Reinforcement Camp. He then transferred to 2nd New Zealand Entrenching Battalion on 4th April and joined on 13th April. After asking how he could get to the front line, he was told to relinquish all rank and transfer to 3rd New Zealand Entrenching Battalion on 19th May. He finally returned to being a private and join the Auckland Regiment 2nd Battalion on 27th August.

Private Crichton was serving with the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment when he was awarded his Victoria Cross during the ‘Hundred Days Offensive’, a series of Allied attacks in the final weeks of the war, on 30 September near Crèvecœur in France. Private Crichton’s platoon was conducting an offensive across the Scheldt River when they came under machine-gun fire.

On 30th September 1918, at Crevecoeur, France, Private Crichton, although wounded in the foot, stayed with the advancing troops despite difficult canal and river obstacles. When his platoon was forced back by a counterattack he succeeded in carrying a message which involved swimming a river and crossing an area swept by machine-gun fire. Subsequently he rejoined his platoon and later undertook on his own initiative to save a bridge which had been mined. Under close fire he managed to remove the charges, returning with the fuses and detonators.

James was wounded during his VC action and admitted to 2nd New Zealand Field Ambulance on 1st October. He was transferred to No 59 Casualty Clearing Station on 2nd October and to 12th General Hospital, Rouen on 6th October. He was then evacuated to Britain where he recuperated at 1st New Zealand General Hospital in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, then at Codford, Wiltshire.

He was later promoted to Sergeant. James Crichton was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on the 26th February 1919. On 8th March 1919 he was taken on the strength of the New Zealand HQ in London and of the Army Pay Department at Larkhill, Wiltshire on 29th April. He arrived back in New Zealand on 23rd June, and was discharged on 18th September, unfit for further service. After the war, Crichton returned to work as a cable splicer in New Zealand.

James married Amy Watkins nee Howe, who was from Banbury, Oxfordshire, on 29th October 1919 in Auckland. They lived in Takapuna, and had two daughters – Velda and Hazel. James re-enlisted on 27th February 1937 to join the 50 strong New Zealand Coronation Contingent with fellow VCs, Leslie Andrew and Samuel Frickleton. He arrived in Tilbury on 19th April in preparation for the coronation of King George VI on 12th May. He served in the Merchant Navy in World War II. He is also believed to have served in the Home Guard.

James attended the VC Centenary Celebrations at Hyde Park, London on 26th June 1956, and was presented to the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on their tour of New Zealand in May 1957.

Sergeant Crichton died at Takapuna, New Zealand, on 22nd September, 1961. He was buried in the Waikumete Memorial Park Soldiers’ Cemetery, near Auckland. He is commemorated with Crichton Barracks near Palmerston North, Crichton Place in Napier, with a blue plaque at 75 Woodburn Road in Carrickfergus, a memorial plaque at Carrick Civic Centre in Carrickfergus, and VC commemorative stones at the Carrickfergus War Memorial, Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, and Blackridge Primary School in Blackridge, West Lothian, Scotland.

His medal group including his VC, Queen’s South Africa Medal 1899-1902 with 5 clasps, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19, 1939-45 Star, War Medal 1939-45, New Zealand War Service Medal 1939-45, King George VI Coronation Medal 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953, were reunited by the Auckland War Museum in 2001. They acquired his campaign medals separately from his VC which was donated by immediate family.

LOCATION OF MEDAL:AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM, NEW ZEALAND.

BURIAL PLACE: WAIKUMATE CEMETERY, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.

PROTESTANT SECTION, BLOCK L, SECTION 4 PLOT 9